Still no Gibson Mick Taylor Signature guitar.

But a manufacturer claims to have cloned his pick ups.

[www.throbak.com]
MT-102B Custom MXV P.A.F. Specs.: Neck 8.3K, Bridge 8.0K, Short A2 magnets.
...
The original pickups in the Taylor/Richards Burst are in fact short magnet P.A.F.'s. Short magnets in a P.A.F. are not typical but not unheard of. And a few years ago I sent a short P.A.F. magnet from one of my personal P.A.F.'s to T&S in Indiana to be cloned. They sliced it in half, did an x-ray spectrograph to nail the metal mix and made me a custom heat of this very unique vintage short A2 variety. Those short A2 clone magnets have been waiting on the shelf for a special project and now they debut in the MT-102B Custom MXV set! Based upon gauss readings and the tone of the Taylor Burst, this vintage beauty very likely has short A2 magnets. The MT-102B Custom set is the result of many test pickups, precisely calibrated Throbak exclusive magnets and specially selected magnet wire, and to top it off, wound on Throbak's time machine 1957 Leesona-102B.
...

The text refers to the Taylor/Richards burst, but this is not the bigsby burst purchased in '67 and used on the '69 tour (that is, the Satisfaction '65 and LIV '69 burst).

Sounds pretty speculative to me. No real information that the Taylor/Richards Burst indeed has short magnets in the PAF's. But it would be great to try these pickup's out and do an A/B comparison of the vintage PAF's.

Taylor's best sounds came out of that SG he used to play anyway, imo.


peace

I prefer the Les Paul sound. I guess it coincides with the expanded set list though. Did Taylor have two different LP's during his time with the Stones? He had that Bigsby plus top now, and had for years, but was that the Richards one? I know he had some axes stolen in France.

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TravelinMan
I prefer the Les Paul sound. I guess it coincides with the expanded set list though. Did Taylor have two different LP's during his time with the Stones? He had that Bigsby plus top now, and had for years, but was that the Richards one? I know he had some axes stolen in France.

Not sure but it's a good question for Mathijs. I do recall a more recent interview with Taylor where he says he's not much of a guitar collector and usually keeps only 2 or three around that he plays.

peace

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Naturalust
Sounds pretty speculative to me. No real information that the Taylor/Richards Burst indeed has short magnets in the PAF's. But it would be great to try these pickup's out and do an A/B comparison of the vintage PAF's.
Taylor's best sounds came out of that SG he used to play anyway, imo.
peace

Did you check the link to the Throbak site?

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The first and only clone set of the pickups in the Taylor/Richards Burst! And I'm just going to say it, this set is freakin' cool! But imagine one day you get a call that goes like this, "Jon, holy shit, I got the Burst Mick Taylor played with the Stones in front of me, it has short mags and sounds amazing! I read the pickups at 73 degrees F so I have good numbers... Fed Ex me your gauss meter and I will read the gauss on these pups!!" So I say, "I'm headin' to Fed Ex right now!" Well that was the call I got from Kim Lafluer at Historic Makeovers recently. The result of that call and many hours of testing with the critical info plugged in, is the MT-102B MXV set.

There is a "comparison" to vintage pups (but not in the same guitar, with the same player or using the same music) in that link.

sssoul's Ratbag Boogie Thread has info on Taylor's LPs: [www.iorr.org]

1. '69-70 tour: the bigsby one he purchased from Richards in late '67
2. '72 tour: I think it omitted the pickguard
3. '73 Euro tour: stripe between the pups, also pictured with Richards and possibly the one referred to in the Throbak website

Taylor may have used other LPs with the Stones and had at least one other LP stolen when he was with the Bluesbreakers.

All the foregoing were stolen or sold by the early 80s (but I believe were used on the Alvin Lee and '82 Bluesbreaker tours).



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-04-09 09:24 by smokeydusky.

the question i have about the throback pickups in regards to mick taylor's pickups are they underwound or a little bit overwound and hotter PAF'S ? i have heard a lot of good things about the throback pickups in general.

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TravelinMan
I prefer the Les Paul sound. I guess it coincides with the expanded set list though. Did Taylor have two different LP's during his time with the Stones? He had that Bigsby plus top now, and had for years, but was that the Richards one? I know he had some axes stolen in France.

AFAIK he has three Les Pauls at the moment. None of them are vintage: they're all '59 historics from the Gibson custom shop. The one he played on tour with the Stones was picked for him by Vic DaPra, I recall (possibly at the same time Ronnie got his reliced R9), and is quite a deep cherry sunburst with a Bigsby B7. The main one he played on his solo gigs before that and at the O2 shows also has a B7, but was more of a lemony burst and got a Dave Johnson / Historic Makeovers revamp before Taylor received it, presumably so it resembled the Keefburst a bit more. The third is a standard R9 without a Bigsby that was usually a backup on his solo shows. There were rumours going around that his former manager owned at least one of these (probably a load of nonsense, but I don't know).

I'm a bit surprised that Taylor never seems to get vintage pieces on loan from any of the big collectors, in the way that other big name players do (given that most collectors are baby boomers weaned on late 60s blues rock, and one or two of them actually own his old guitars, you'd think they would be offered to him sometimes, but apparently not.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-04-09 15:19 by Stoneburst.

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Stoneburst

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TravelinMan
I prefer the Les Paul sound. I guess it coincides with the expanded set list though. Did Taylor have two different LP's during his time with the Stones? He had that Bigsby plus top now, and had for years, but was that the Richards one? I know he had some axes stolen in France.

AFAIK he has three Les Pauls at the moment. None of them are vintage: they're all '59 historics from the Gibson custom shop. The one he played on tour with the Stones was picked for him by Vic DaPra, I recall (possibly at the same time Ronnie got his reliced R9), and is quite a deep cherry sunburst with a Bigsby B7. The main one he played on his solo gigs before that and at the O2 shows also has a B7, but was more of a lemony burst and got a Dave Johnson / Historic Makeovers revamp before Taylor received it, presumably so it resembled the Keefburst a bit more. The third is a standard R9 without a Bigsby that was usually a backup on his solo shows. There were rumours going around that his former manager owned at least one of these (probably a load of nonsense, but I don't know).

I'm a bit surprised that Taylor never seems to get vintage pieces on loan from any of the big collectors, in the way that other big name players do (given that most collectors are baby boomers weaned on late 60s blues rock, and one or two of them actually own his old guitars, you'd think they would be offered to him sometimes, but apparently not.)

please share some of the other big name players who use vintage instruments that are loaned to them from collectors?

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TheGreek
please share some of the other big name players who use vintage instruments that are loaned to them from collectors?

There's a couple of collectors whom own several known Bursts, like the burts of Peter Green, Duane Allman and Paul Kossoff. The owners lent these guitars to players like Derek Trucks and Joe Bonamassa for live use.

Mathijs

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TheGreek

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Stoneburst

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TravelinMan
I prefer the Les Paul sound. I guess it coincides with the expanded set list though. Did Taylor have two different LP's during his time with the Stones? He had that Bigsby plus top now, and had for years, but was that the Richards one? I know he had some axes stolen in France.

AFAIK he has three Les Pauls at the moment. None of them are vintage: they're all '59 historics from the Gibson custom shop. The one he played on tour with the Stones was picked for him by Vic DaPra, I recall (possibly at the same time Ronnie got his reliced R9), and is quite a deep cherry sunburst with a Bigsby B7. The main one he played on his solo gigs before that and at the O2 shows also has a B7, but was more of a lemony burst and got a Dave Johnson / Historic Makeovers revamp before Taylor received it, presumably so it resembled the Keefburst a bit more. The third is a standard R9 without a Bigsby that was usually a backup on his solo shows. There were rumours going around that his former manager owned at least one of these (probably a load of nonsense, but I don't know).

I'm a bit surprised that Taylor never seems to get vintage pieces on loan from any of the big collectors, in the way that other big name players do (given that most collectors are baby boomers weaned on late 60s blues rock, and one or two of them actually own his old guitars, you'd think they would be offered to him sometimes, but apparently not.)

please share some of the other big name players who use vintage instruments that are loaned to them from collectors?

Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Bonamassa, JD Simo, Vince Gill are the ones that immediately spring to mind, I think Clapton's done it a few times as well.

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Naturalust
Sounds pretty speculative to me. No real information that the Taylor/Richards Burst indeed has short magnets in the PAF's. But it would be great to try these pickup's out and do an A/B comparison of the vintage PAF's.

Taylor's best sounds came out of that SG he used to play anyway, imo.


peace

The Mick Taylor Burst is the burst Taylor used from 1969 to 1972, and not to be confused with the Taylor/Richards burst, which is the burst he used on the 1973 tour.

The Taylor burst is a 1958 LP, with exposed bobbins, a removed Bigsby, and the original Kluson tuners. Taylor sold this guitar in 1983, and has ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe. There the pickups where measures: dimensions, resistance and Gausse. The results of the measurements indicated that the PAF's where indeed low resistance short A2 magnets.

The Taylor/Richards burst is the burst with the distinctive stripe between the pickups, with removed Bigsby, covered pickups and Grover tuners. This is a 1959 model. The owner is an amateur player who bought it for small money at Denmark Street in 1983. That's where Taylor had sold it.

The other LP is indeed the Keith Richards Bigsby Burst. This one was either stolen in 1971 at Nellcote or at a train platform, or sold by Taylor in 1971. This is unclear.

I am to date uncertain wether there was a third 'standard' Les Paul in the Taylor years. There are pictures of a Les Paul that look somewhat different than the known ones. There's the Ya Ya's front cover LP that does not look like the Taylor Burst, and there are several 1972 tour pictures where you can see a spare LP on top of the amps.

Taylor kept changing some specs -scratch plate, tuners, covers on/off, so it is not all clear.

Mathijs

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Mathijs
The other LP is indeed the Keith Richards Bigsby Burst. This one was either stolen in 1971 at Nellcote or at a train platform, or sold by Taylor in 1971. This is unclear.

The one that got stolen at a railway station in the UK during the 1990s was a replica, wasn't it? It was his main guitar throughout the late 80s and early 90s:

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Stoneburst

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Mathijs
The other LP is indeed the Keith Richards Bigsby Burst. This one was either stolen in 1971 at Nellcote or at a train platform, or sold by Taylor in 1971. This is unclear.

The one that got stolen at a railway station in the UK during the 1990s was a replica, wasn't it? It was his main guitar throughout the late 80s and early 90s:

Taylor has stated he lost his Bigsby Burst on a train platform somewhere on the 1971 UK Tour. Recent information is that he might has sold it in 1971 as he was in need of money.

The one he lost while changing trains in the 1990's indeed was a replica.

Mathijs

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Mathijs

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TheGreek
please share some of the other big name players who use vintage instruments that are loaned to them from collectors?

There's a couple of collectors whom own several known Bursts, like the burts of Peter Green, Duane Allman and Paul Kossoff. The owners lent these guitars to players like Derek Trucks and Joe Bonamassa for live use.

Mathijs

that is a pretty cool thing to do .

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Stoneburst

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TheGreek

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Stoneburst

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TravelinMan
I prefer the Les Paul sound. I guess it coincides with the expanded set list though. Did Taylor have two different LP's during his time with the Stones? He had that Bigsby plus top now, and had for years, but was that the Richards one? I know he had some axes stolen in France.

AFAIK he has three Les Pauls at the moment. None of them are vintage: they're all '59 historics from the Gibson custom shop. The one he played on tour with the Stones was picked for him by Vic DaPra, I recall (possibly at the same time Ronnie got his reliced R9), and is quite a deep cherry sunburst with a Bigsby B7. The main one he played on his solo gigs before that and at the O2 shows also has a B7, but was more of a lemony burst and got a Dave Johnson / Historic Makeovers revamp before Taylor received it, presumably so it resembled the Keefburst a bit more. The third is a standard R9 without a Bigsby that was usually a backup on his solo shows. There were rumours going around that his former manager owned at least one of these (probably a load of nonsense, but I don't know).

I'm a bit surprised that Taylor never seems to get vintage pieces on loan from any of the big collectors, in the way that other big name players do (given that most collectors are baby boomers weaned on late 60s blues rock, and one or two of them actually own his old guitars, you'd think they would be offered to him sometimes, but apparently not.)

please share some of the other big name players who use vintage instruments that are loaned to them from collectors?

Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Bonamassa, JD Simo, Vince Gill are the ones that immediately spring to mind, I think Clapton's done it a few times as well.

well Clapton used to have a pretty good size collection before he started selling off instruments to fund his crossroads rehab facility .loved to know which instruments Clapton lent out ?

So this 1973 Les Paul was only used live? Any documented studio dates with it? What is its history after the tour?

On the ThroBak site they call it the Taylor/Richards burst... so apparently its not the early one sold by Keith to Mick. But since Keith was photographed using it, it can get by being called a "MT/KR burst" as well.

Seems the '69-72 pickups would be the guitar to clone.

Any info greatly appreciated,

jive